1.7.1-Kingedmundsroyalmurder
Brick!club chapters 1 and 2 (bk. 7): of lies and nosiness So I am still utterly emotionally exhausted because of reasons, so this is genuinely going to be short. I want to talk about the Valjean angst chapter separately from these two, though I may lump it in with the Valjean dream chapter. But I didn’t have all that much to say about these even before life happened, so this should be doubly quick. Chapter one of this part introduces us to the two nurses looking after Fantine, though the chapter is only named after the one. They’re basically a study in contrasts, with Sister Perpetue being “religious like one is a cook” and Sister Simplice being so very truthful and pure that her skin is paper-white. Both of these women look after Fantine, but especially Sister Simplice, who was won over by Fantine’s latent virtue and eventually comes to care for her almost exclusively. One has to wonder whether there are other patients to look after or whether Sister Perpetue is off doing good works elsewhere when not occupied with Fantine. I’m not sure why wanting to receive letters is a bad thing. Is it a gossip thing again? There’s no reason why letters have to contain gossip. They could just be news of the family or of current events or musings on various philosophical ideas. Nor am I sure why, in a book so concerned with education, she is commended for reading only one book and that in a language she does not know how to speak. I assume her own inherent piety allows her to grasp the Word despite the language barrier. Other people have, I’m pretty sure, picked apart the lying thing both on its own and in relation to the amount of lying Valjean does to Fantine and, even if they haven’t, I have nowhere near the available brainpower to do it. But, like everyone else, I noticed. Anyway, we learn that Valjean has, on this particular day, stayed with Fantine longer than usual, which delights her utterly, and once again made empty promises to bring her Cosette. One wonders whether a more lucid Fantine would have noticed that it’s been ‘soon’ for the past six weeks. But she’s actively dying now, which apparently explains his grave features. Not, you know, the turmoil and identity crisis going on inside him at that very moment. This takes us to chapter two, where Valjean manages to hire a horse and cabriolet for Arras despite the merchant’s best efforts to talk him out of it. It was nice of Valjean to ensure the things, I suppose, especially given what happens to them on the actual trip. So he doesn’t stop by the cure’s house to ask for guidance. One wonders what the cure would have said. It’s a mark of how genuinely complex the question is that none of us can predict the answer, though the diatribe about lying in the last chapter seems to suggest that it would be ‘turn yourself in and cleanse your soul’. I think my favorite bit of their exchange is when Scaufflaire goes, “You do realize that it’s cold out, right?” Because he clearly thinks that this is a completely stupid idea but this is the mayor and so he can’t say it in so many words. (I also like how he addresses Valjean in the third person for the entire conversation. It makes him sound delightfully obsequious.) And Valjean just pays the exorbitant sum demanded in insurance without batting an eye. I wonder if that’s him not having the brainpower to do the calculations himself or him just not caring about it since he has the money. And then he spends the rest of the night pacing, which we will deal with more in the next chapter. Commentary Pilferingapples I really like Scaufflaire; I feel like he’s being honest as he can without just tossing the Mayor out of his office. I WANT TO KNOW MORE PEOPLE IN THIS TOWN.